Heartland

Sorry for the long post in advance.

QUOTE:

Here, ANDREW COLLINS presents a catalogue of quotes that may, or may not, add to the overall case for his 'prosecution'. You are the jury. But don't qote us on that.

"I'm really chained to those iron bridges. I'm really chained to the pier. I'm persistently on some disused clearing in Wigan. I shall be buried there, I'm sure, and I shall be glad to go at that point." (Morrissey, Feb 1984)

"I think the main blemish on this country is absolute segregation which seems to appear on every level, with everything and everybody. There is no unity." (Morrissey, Feb 1984)

"I'm not totally averse to violence. I think it's quite attractively necessary in some extremes. Violence on behalf of CND is absolutely necessary... obviously CND care about the people and that's why they do what they do. That's patriotism." (Morrissey, December 1984)

"The common sense for the future is to try and preserve as much as we can from the past." (Morrissey, December 1984)

"Reggae is vile." (Morrissey, NME questionnaire, February 1985)

"Personally, I'm an incurably peaceable character. But where does it get you? Nowhere. You have to be violent." (Morrissey, March 1985)

"Happiness is eating an ice cream, happiness can be Bernard Manning..." (Morrissey, April 1985)

"The memories I have of being trapped in Piccadilly bus station while waiting for the all-night bus, or being chased across Piccadily Gardens by some 13-year-old Perry from Collyhurst wielding a Stanley knife." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"Reggae to me is the most racist music in the entire world. It's an absolute glorification of black supremacy." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"I detest Stevie Wonder." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"I think Diana Ross is awful." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, I think they're all vile in the extreme." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"Obviously to get on Top Of The Pops these days one had to be, by law, black. I think something political has happened and there has been a hefty pushing of all these black artists and all this discofied nonsense into the Top 40... In essence, this music doesn't say anything whatsoever." (Morrissey, September 1986)

"To those who took offence at ('Panic''s) 'Burn down the disco' line I'd say — please show me the black members of New Order! For me, personally, New Order make great disco music, but there's no black people in the group. You can't just interchange the words 'black' and 'disco'." (Johnny Marr, February 1987)

"On the racism charge, then, any judge would declare Morrissey the hapless victim of a lynch mob. Mind you, with people who put their heads into nooses for fun — remember 'all reggae is file', M? — the occasional fatality gets filed as an industrial accident." (Danny Kelly, NME February 1987)

"I believe that everything went downhill from the moment the McDonalds chain was given license to invade England — don't laugh, I'm serious. To me it was like the outbreak of war and I can't understand why English troops weren't retaliating. The Americanisation of England is such a terminal illness — I think England should be English, and Americans should go home and spoil their own country." (Morrissey, September 1987)

"In Morrissey's mind, ('Bengali In Platforms') may be a profound statement about personal alienation, but unfortunately it would go down very well at a singalong after a National Front picnic." (Review, Q magazine, March 1988)

"Even the English language, I find, has been hoplessly mucked about with and everything is American or Australian. It's astonishing but it's so rife. But because Margaret Thatcher is such a weak Prime Minister any influence American business wishes to have on England, it has. They've completely taken over Newcastle."
I thought that was the Japanese?
"Well, American/Japanese, they're all foreign... I don't mean that." (Morrissey, February 1989)

"I rarely watch TV, I never read a newspaper. I feel separate from the political world. I just find it harder and harder to care. I despair of politics and, interestingly, the 'murder' of Margaret Thatcher was the last point of my interest. I'm not interested in John Major, The Gulf War I didn't care about or want to know about, so I'm certainly less political than I was." (Morrissey, May 1991)

"I'm incapable of racism, even though I wear this T-shirt and even though I'm delighted that an increasing number of my audience are skinheads in nail varnish. And I'm not trying to be funny, that really is the perfect audience for me. But I am incapable of racism, and the people who say I am racist are basically just the people who can't stand the sight of my physical frame. I don't think we should flatter them with our attention. ... The sight of streams of skinheads in nail varnish, it somehow represents the Britain I love. Wouldn't it be awful to find yourself 'followed' by people you didn't want? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the skinhead was an entirely British invention."
Do you pine for a mythical Britain?
"Perhaps. It's certainly gone now. England doesn't only not rule the waves, it's actually sunk below them. And all that remains is debris. But in amongst the debris shine slits of positivity."
If you aren't a racist, are you a patriot?
"Yes, I am. I find travelling very hard. I miss England." (Morrissey, May 1991)

"I don't want to sound horrible or pessimistic, but I really don't think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. The French will never like the English. The English will never like the French. The tunnel will collapse." (Morrissey, August 1992)

"I'm not a football hooligan... but I just undertand the character." (Morrissey, August 1992)

"When I see reports on the television about football hooliganism in Sweden or Denmark or somewhere, I'm actually amused. Is that a horrible thing to say?" (Morrissey, August 1992)

"I don't want to be European. I want England to remain an island. I think part of the greatness of the past has been the fact that England has been an island." (Morrissey, August 1992)

"Even while denouncing racial prejudice in stirring fashion, he was wont to admit that he disliked Pakistanis. 'I don't hate Pakistanis, but I dislike them immensely' was his flippantly blunt adolescent observation (1977)." (Johnny Rogan, The Severed Alliance)

/QUOTE

IZ.

Bloody hell. What a prize twit.

"I don't want to be European. I want England to remain an island. I think part of the greatness of the past has been the fact that England has been an island." (Morrissey, August 1992)

England is not and never has been an island.

Thanks for the post Izzy, I think your ammunition hit home...

The guy on the far right with the tattoo on his arm seriously needs my phone number.
Funny thing about reggae, mention it and everyone pictures Bob Marley and Eddie Grant, thoughtful and talented. I'd advise them to check out Beanie Man and the like, they're the more common type. Sing in patois and you can be a misogynistic prick with a Freudian obsession with gay sex and no-one bats an eyelid. A lot of what is considered "black" music strikes me as having amazingly nasty overtones that would be the death of a white artists career.
Ross, Jackson et al are dire. And Stevie Wonder rivals Rod Stewart as a waste of a good talent.
I wouldn't say Morrissey was a racist. More an English nationalist who doesn't relate to modern multicultural "Britain". You'll find harsher sentiments than his in any pub.

DeWinter wrote:I wouldn't say Morrissey was a racist. More an English nationalist who doesn't relate to modern multicultural "Britain". You'll find harsher sentiments than his in any pub.

True that. But people in the pub have only three or four people taking them as an example.

As an artist, you have to be aware and wary of what you say and do, in terms of racist or sexual comments.

And just because black music does it, doesn't mean we have to do it, do we?

IZ.

DeWinter wrote:a misogynistic prick with a Freudian obsession with gay sex

I hear this accusation a lot, and to be fair, I can think of many confirming examples, and I'm not trying to excuse it.

Is "white" music any less misogynistic (or homophobic for that matter)? I know it's a bit like the "what's the difference between erotica and pornography" argument but I can think of plenty of nasty songs by the seedier end of the "rawk" spectrum; where else did Spiňal Tap get the raw material for stuff like "sex Farm" and "Big Bottom"? And even something like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" is fairly blatantly sexual.

In effect, what I'm trying to say is, is it possible that we're finding negative stereotypes in "black" music because we're expecting to find them there?

(As an aside, reducing "black" music to just reggae, rap, funk and disco is a bit misleading. For example, there's a whole continent's worth of music coming out of Africa. Just because we don't (often) get to hear it...)

And there's the whole issue that speaking of "black" and "white" as races of humans makes no sense (biologically speaking): separating music into "black music" and "white music" even less so. Almost all of our modern popular music has its roots in a mixture of "white" country and "black" gospel and blues -- with a bit of Hawai'ian guitar thrown in for good measure.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote: Tot say it with Fat Bob's words: "If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I'll eat meat; that's how much I hate Morrissey"

Never heard this quote before but I dont think Morrissey meant 16" deep pan meat feasts.

Fuck's sake Bob man, lighten up

I'd say misogyny and homophobia are rife in black culture itself, and the music reflects it. Or, at least, such sentiments are more acceptable to be expressed there, than in what we'll call for convenience "white" culture, where I've no doubt those feelings are still there and sometimes are exposed (Section 28, "British jobs for British workers!", etc). The dinosaur rocks acts that Tap parodied died a pretty slow and embarrassing death as their drugs, women and booze lifestyles led them all to become rather sad figures as they aged. I don't think any white artist could get away with attempting what the hair-metal types tried again.
I don't think it's racist myself to say a certain community has a certain problem, and I think that's what Morrissey is trying to say.